Cast

Ripto's Rage, developed by Insomniac Games, is the sequel to the 1998 platformer "Spyro the Dragon". The original Insomniac trilogy finishes off with "Spyro: Year of the Dragon". The games were exclusive to Playstation and they kind of became a bastion for the Playstation brand.

But after the third game Insomniac went on to develop Ratchet & Clank and left the Spyro franchise to other developers who went and created a bunch of shit games. Nowadays Spyro doing a little better in the Skylanders franchise.

Yo JAF; Why this game?
The original Spyro games are among my absolute favorite games. Sure, nostalgia has a little bit to with it but the games have crazy solid fundamentals. The level design in particular is fantastic. In its core Spyro is just a simple platformer but its executed really well. I also don't find that it's aged poorly at all, especially compared to most PS1 era games. The camera is kind of poor but the controls are still pretty solid.

Joining me in this endeavor will be Sinatrapod.

Then why not start with the first Spyro?
Simply put; I don't like it as much. It's not a bad game at all but Spyro 2 improved so much that I just want to play 2 instead. For those still interested, check out Flare Elevar's Spyro the Dragon LP.

So what's the deal with the "Let's Play & Break" thing?
While I'll run through Spyro 2 mostly traditionally in a 100% run, Spyro 2 also has a bunch of really cool glitches that can go from skipping a part of the level to a third of the game. So I'll show off all those things as well. Two for one!

Anything else?
Uhh... If you play nice I'll probably y'all vote on which world(s) to visit from the different hub levels in the game.

Spyro. In the first Spyro the Dragon, Gnasty Gnorc attacked the dragon realm and turned all the dragons to stone. Somehow because Spyro was so small he wasn't affected by it so it was up to him to free the dragons and defeat Gnasty Gnorc. Some time later he wants to take a vacation to Dragon Shores but things don't go as planned...

Sparx. Sparx is a dragonfly and Spyro's eternal buddy. He's a pretty good buddy 'cause he picks up loot and tanks damage for you.

Elora. I'M A FAWN YOU DORK.

Hunter. Hunter's job in this game is to be as condescending as possible towards Spyro and think up really obtuse challenges for us to do. I can't not like him, honestly.

Moneybags. His sole purpose in life is to show up everywhere and manipulate Spyro out of his gems.

The Professor. He likes orbs. Maybe he's a wizard??

Crush and Gulp. CRUSH CRUSH. GULP GULP. That's about it.

Ripto. The not so big baddie. He wants to enslave Avalar for some reason and sends out all his Rhino goons to the different worlds. I guess he hates Dragons.

Zoe. The leader(?) of the fairies. She and her friends scattered all the orbs across Avalar to keep them from Ripto. She saves your progress by zapping you in the butt. I dunno. Magic.

Bounsa. Don't FUCK with Bounsa's gems.

"That Fucking Duck".

Fisher. Trouble with the trolley, EH?

Indeterminacy posted:

Indeterminacy shows that they are a pure blooded Land Blubber communist.

onoflalks posted:

onoflalks, on the other hand shows his full support for the Breezebuilders.

minibeasts posted:

minibeasts lets us know that despite eveything, Spyro DOES have a cuter side.

Insomiac Games Easter Eggs

Volcano Style posted:

Fun fact: There's a little Easter Egg you never showed off. If you zoom into the coins in the fountain in first person mode, you'll see the face of the late Dan Johnson, former Insomniac employee whose face still appears on scenery even in the Ratchet and Clank series.

Craig Stitt posted:

Actually, your question about 'Brenda' is a great question, and you are the first to ask it.

Here's the whole story behind the name: Besides answering the mail around here, my primary job is creating the 2D and 3D art that makes up the Spyro worlds. While painting the textures for the castle walls in Summer Forest, I decided that it would be fun to 'carve' my son's name into the wall. So, if you look very carefully at the white castle walls in Summer Forest, you will see that the scroll work actually spells out 'BRYAN'.

Well, someone finally noticed the name at work, and the word spread quickly. Then one day our lead animator came to ask me a favor. He has a son named Bryan as well, but he also has a daughter named, you guessed it, Brenda. He said he wondered if I could sneak 'Brenda' into the art somewhere so he could show his kids their names.

At the time I was then working on the art for Winter Tundra, and the doors seemed like perfect place to have a little fun. So there's the long answer to your question.

The only other really 'in' thing is that in Mystic Marsh, there is a coin that you have to find then spit into the fountain. If you look very carefully there is a definate face on the coin. That would be Dan, one of the artists here. I am not quite sure why his face is on the coin, other than the fact that he gets teased a lot around here.